[POOL] Followup: Comedy time

[Bill Boettinger]

Craig,

I really wish I could have seen you - I can just imagine how much fun it
was.

I read your link below and have 2 cents to add.

Not like I am even a remote knowlegible critic (and not seeing your
routine), but I think that you should stick with the material subject of
weight loss AND incorporate the whole "Canadian" thing into it. I know
that you like the whole setup - punch, but I always thought you were
funniest when you would elaborate,then embellish (to the point of being
really rediculous) and then the coups-de-gras circling back to some
innocuous comment that you made at the beginning of the conversation. I
am not familiar with most of the comics that you mention, but one of my
favorites is Jim Gaffigan and my wife's is Lewis Black. Both of these
guys use a very simialr technique, but with totally different delivery.
Jim uses the soft sell and when he is giving the routine you know it's
going somewhere (kinda like looking at the world through a child's eye)
but he has something at the end that ties to the beginning. Lewis grabs
you by the throat in a very, angry at the world style and takes you
though a story that ties back to his original statement. Different
styles, same trip. In talking to you at the bar/pool hall, I have always
considered you to be a very good story teller - you always have a twist
comment that I never seen coming - I hope that you use that in your
routine, because you're very good with that - double meanings.

The reason why I say that you can factor in the "Canadian" thing is that
"weight loss" is something that you would never associate with
"Canadian" You could compare weight loss strategies (or lack the of) in
the U.S. v.s. Canadian weight loss strategies. Weight loss tools, the
history of weight loss, weight loss in the middle ages (King Henry the
8ths method). WeightWatchers - weight is a number, so in Canada at
WeightWatchers we write our number on a wall and stare until the pounds
come rolling off - I've obviously gotten up to get a bite in the fridge
at the commercials. You could be worried about the "over weight crisis
in America and quote some real statisics and say that you real concern
that the Chinese keep eating Chinese food and if they don't start
"packing it on" in this weight/arms race they're going to unbalance the
Earth and send us into the Sun. (their fault for being lean - nothing to
do with America getting fatter.) I put a bullet proof / torch proof /
high tech lock (made by an American Aerospace company) on the outside of
my fridge and I was so disappointed that it was not crowbar proof. That
Canadian built crowbar cost me a lot of added weight. Weight sounds so
evil,but it's really not. Weight is the letter "W" plus the number 8. I
have never heard a woman get angry when you say to her, I could write
the letter "W" when I was eight, but if you say to her my favorite
letter is "W" and my favorite number is "8", holy shit woman do you eat
a hectare of grass each day to maintain you weight at it's present
level. I would say acre here, but us Canadian's don't know what an acre
is, we think it's a really bad headache - Eh? You could compare
attitudes: women, men, American and Canadian. You could embelish with
total bold face lies - the more outlandish - the funnier it is. If you
ate your arm, would you lose weight - I think you would, because
everyone knows that all canibals don't eat the bones, so you would have
a net weight loss while you were eating. I ate a tapeworm hoping that
would allow me to lose weight while eating anything I wanted - sad thing
is my tape worm is a picky eater and I refuse to change my diet - that
was 8 years ago and I think I am going to win this and he can eat what I
CHOOSE. One rule that I have if I'm the host I DECIDE whats going to be
eaten - I'm not going to start now and allow my parasites to control me
- it would just cause my parents to get jealous.

Well I hope that you can use some of this drabble and if not hit delete.
Good luck with it!

-Bill


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-mcs-pool at mcs.anl.gov [mailto:owner-mcs-pool at mcs.anl.gov] On
Behalf Of Craig Stacey
Sent: Friday, December 21, 2007 12:05 PM
To: Craig Stacey
Subject: [POOL] Followup: Comedy time


Video finally found its way into my paws.  So, for those who are  
interested:

http://www.robotmonkeypants.com/2007/12/21/comedy-debut-thoughts-and-vid
eo/

And a big humongous thank you to everyone who came -- I think we made  
up the biggest contingent in the audience, and did that ever help!

==
Hey, folks.  If you're in town on Monday, December 3, and up for a  
night of comedy at Zanies downtown, I can get you in for free.  The  
catch is you have to watch a bunch of people graduate a comedy class.   
But one of those people is me, so how awesome is that?

http://stace.com/zanies for details.
--
Craig